Teeth, as the most durable tissue in the human body, are often all that remain of direct evidence for human occupation of an archaeological site. Dental remains are therefore prized by investigators from numerous disciplines, including physical anthropologists. Dental anthropologists assess teeth for morphological variants that characterize extinct as well as those by which extant populations can be identified (Scott and Turner, 1997).
Through such studies, connections between early hominids and extant primates with current human populations have also been made (Irish, 1998). Through analyses of dental use wear patterns, paleoecologists are able to reconstruct ancient environments. In so doing, new perspectives regarding human physiological as well as cultural adaptations in space and time can be gleaned (Walker, 1976; Grine and Kay, 1988). Depositional differences among skeletal and dental remains enable taphonomists to recreate early hominid paleo-environments (Behrensmeyer, 1975).
Through the assessment of dental stigmata, paleopathologists are able to identify diseases like congenital syphilis, and the existence of nutritional stressors among and between members of mortuary populations (Jacobi, et al., 1992; Katzenberg, 1993; Hillson, 1996; Scott and Turner, 1997; Langsjoen, 1998). Culturally motivated dental alterations (ogsley and Bellande, 1982; Scott and Turner, 1997; Langsjoen, 1998) in addition to environmentally associated occlusal and interproximal wear (Brace, 1975; Blakely and Beck, 1984; Bullington, 1991; Ungar and Spencer, 1999), are also discernable through assessment of dental remains.
This current study was undertaken ancillary to a multi-disciplinary project under the auspices of the Chinese Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Archaeometry Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. The protocol described herein was devised to provide a means by which molecular investigations--e.g. mtDNA haplotypes from the Shang Dynasty Heiheru Site at Anyang, China--could proceed without compromising the integrity of morphologically informative dentition.